Save the Dennison Hotel from Demolition

By signing my name below, I register my protest against the proposed demolition of the Dennison Hotel Building, located at 716 Main Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45202. Currently owned by Columbia REI, LLC, the building is due for a hearing at the Historic Conservation Board on April 18th , 2016, at which time its owner plans to ask for a certificate of appropriateness for demolition.

For several reasons, the Dennison should be preserved:

1) Columbia REI has not met the criteria for demolition according to City Municipal Code.

The Dennison is not dangerous, unsafe or threatening immediate collapse; Columbia REI has not proven the Dennison’s economic infeasibility for redevelopment; it has not put forth a sincere, best-effort attempt to market and sell the Dennison; and it has not thoroughly investigated Federal and State Historic Tax Credits to alleviate its financial burden for redevelopment.

2) Columbia REI has no proposed plan for what it intends to do with the lot once the Dennison has been demolished. Given this, it seems that there is a strong chance that the site would sit as a parking lot. We do not need more surface parking downtown, especially given that to the south and east of the Dennison is already a large tract of parking lots.

3) It is crucial that we maintain our historic streetscapes, especially given that the Dennison sits within the Cincinnati East Manufacturing and Warehouse District, a national historic district recognized for its style, consistency and density of early Cincinnati buildings.

4) Nationally-renowned architect Samuel Hannaford (designer of Music Hall, City Hall and dozens more) designed and built the Dennison in the late 19th century, its construction complete in 1892. Some of his buildings have already been demolished—the Cincinnati Workhouse, for example, and more recently, 111 Wellington Place. We cannot continue to destroy his legacy.

5) Individuals want to live and work in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine because of these neighborhoods’ historic buildings and character. Demolishing yet another building which is part of a consistent historic streetscape in a federal historic district does a huge disservice to this exciting demographic trend.

For all these reasons, I strongly urge the Historic Conservation Board to deny the requested

Certificate of Appropriateness for Demolition for the Dennison Hotel Building.